A U.S. federal appeals court has placed a significant obstacle in the path of special counsel Jack Smith as he continues his investigation into the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol Building two-and-a-half years ago.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit recently ruled that Smith is not allowed to access the phone records of Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), as such access would be considered a breach of the GOP lawmaker’s immunity under the Constitution’s “speech and debate” clause.
Smith had sought Perry’s communications with colleagues and Executive Branch officials, as reported by Politico. However, the “speech and debate” clause protects members of Congress from facing legal proceedings while they are performing their elected official duties.
U.S. District Judge Neomi Rao, who issued the opinion last week, stated, “While elections are political events, a member’s deliberation about whether to certify a presidential election or how to assess information relevant to legislation about federal election procedures are textbook legislative acts.”
Newsmax noted further:
The decision marked the the first time an appeals court has held that lawmakers’ cellphones are subject to the same protections as their physical offices.
It also was the first significant legal setback for Smith in his bid to obtain evidence about involvement by allies of Donald Trump in the then-president’s alleged effort to overturn the 2020 election, Politico reported.
Rao, a Trump appointee, was joined by another Trump appointee, Judge Gregory Katsas, and by Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, who was nominated by President George H.W. Bush.
The ruling by the three-judge panel overturns a prior decision by U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, who had largely sided with the government’s request to access Perry’s cellphone data.
The appeals court has returned the case to Howell’s court, instructing her to apply the new ruling to any future decisions related to the case.
In another development, Fox News host Jesse Watters criticized special counsel Jack Smith for indicting former President Donald Trump in two separate cases. During a recent segment on “The Five,” Watters referred to Smith as a “nervous wreck” and highlighted Smith’s previous legal issues before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Smith had obtained a four-count indictment against Trump, accusing him of actions related to challenging the outcome of the 2020 election. These charges include willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and false statements.
Furthermore, in June, Smith secured a 37-count indictment against Trump in a swift investigation involving allegations related to classified documents. A superseding indictment was issued on Thursday, which also included charges against Carlos De Oliveira, a maintenance worker at Mar-a-Lago, the Florida estate owned by former President Trump.
“That was Special Counsel Jack Smith, who looked like a bedraggled nervous wreck, dripping with anger and highly emotional,” Watters said after showing a clip of Smith’s press conference earlier in the day announcing the new charges.
“The last time Jack Smith charged a politician, the case was so weak, it got tossed out of the Supreme Court unanimously. The Biden Justice Department is using obscure federal statutes to put a former president in prison for the rest of his life,” Watters told viewers.
Watters was referring to a case where Smith prosecuted then-Republican Gov. Bob McDowell of Virginia over receiving gifts, securing a conviction that the Supreme Court unanimously threw out.
“These charges are not bribery, not assault, not tax evasion, not sex trafficking. They’re charging Donald Trump under the Act of 1866,” Watters said. “It was used against the [Ku Klux] Klan, and now they are using it against Trump.”
